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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Book Review: At The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje

January 03, 2017
This is one of the first, if not the first, Book Reviews I attempted, posted in November 2012. As I read it, it is not particularly 'reviewish' if that's a word. Discussion by the very mature women in my book group, in my memory, proved to be a good time.

The Cat’s Table on a ship is
reserved for ‘lower class’ folk and was
not so welcoming and pleasant as this table....

.....unless you are three small boys
on a three week adventure 
in a ship bound for family in England
across the Indian Ocean
through the Suez Canal
and into the Mediterranean
~ with a chaperone who is maybe just not that attentive.

Michael Ondaatje’s flight of fancy took us through the holds of a passenger ship with kennels and a garden
a dangerous prank in a storm at sea
sly slipping of a dog on board at the first port of call at Aden
mystery
romance
intrigue

Once all of those twists and turns were exhausted,
this group of eight very mature women
segued into.......lunch ~
banana bread and oranges
coffee and cheese 
laughter and chatter about
everything from nanotechnology
to the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse
and everything in between.

“What is interesting and important happens mostly 
in secret, in places where there is no power.”
~ Michael Ondaatje, The Cat’s Table

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